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Medical Malpractice Law

Medical malpractice is a type of injury caused by the negligence of medical professionals. There are numerous laws that govern such cases, including specific statutes of limitation and damages.

The term “malpractice” refers to the situation where a physician, hospital or other healthcare professional fails to treat someone with the level of care other doctors could provide in similar circumstances. Malpractice includes misdiagnosis and surgical errors.

Complaint

Medical malpractice is a special subset of tort law that is devoted to professional negligence. It is defined as an act or omission of an individual doctor that is contrary to the accepted norms of the medical profession which causes injury to the patient [22].

If you are injured by hospital negligence, your claim begins with filing a complaint in civil court. In this document, you detail the facts of your case. You should also name the hospital you worked in and any doctors that were involved with your case. It may be beneficial to agree up front that no health professionals are mentioned in the lawsuit. This is referred to a “no name agreement”.

Then, you list the injuries and the amount of money associated to each. Included are past and future medical expenses, income loss because of being unable to work, pain and discomfort as well as any other losses that you have suffered as a result of a negligence of your doctor. It is recommended to submit these documents as quickly as you can your lawyers in order for them to begin an in-depth review.

Summons

If you believe that you’ve been injured by medical malpractice, your lawyer will prepare an order and complaint and file them with the court. The clerk of the court then assigns a unique identification number to the case. This number is known as an index number and it will be used to track the case through the courts.

A lawsuit will require a significant amount of time, effort and funds by the attorney representing the plaintiff. These resources are needed to fund legal discovery and to procure expert physician witnesses. Even if the medical malpractice action is not successful the case will cost the attorney a huge deal of time and work product.

A lawsuit must prove that the health professional breached a legal obligation and the breach resulted in an injury to the person who filed the claim and the damage is severe enough to warrant legal redress. In the United States, a patient must be able to prove four elements or requirements for a legitimate medical malpractice claim: the existence of a duty; breach of that duty; causation; and damages. Medical malpractice claims are controlled by state law, but in some limited circumstances the case may be transferred to federal district courts.

Discovery

The formal discovery process begins after a civil summons is filed in the court of jurisdiction. This is the time when your medical malpractice lawyer will devote a lot of time trying to gather evidence in the case. This might include reviewing medical records using the services of a medical review company.

This is a crucial stage of the legal process since it can assist your lawyer locate crucial details that support your claim. It is also the longest aspect of a medical liability lawsuit.

During the pretrial discovery stage the attorney will request certain documents and questions from the defendants in your case. The defendants are given the opportunity to answer these questions. These questions are asked under the oath, and must be answered honestly. Defense attorneys can also utilize these questions to establish defenses in your case. This is why it’s so important to hire an experienced medical malpractice lawyer. They can ensure that all necessary evidence is presented in a way that is simple for judges and juries to understand.

Request for Admission

Before a medical malpractice lawsuit is filed, many states require that the patient present the case to an expert panel who will hear arguments and analyze evidence and expert testimony in order to determine whether the claim has enough merit to go forward. The statute of limitations is a law that requires medical malpractice lawsuits to be filed in court within a specific time frame.

To allow the legal team of a patient’s lawyer to pursue a medical malpractice claim, it must be proven that the health professional was not in compliance with the accepted standards of care in their particular area of expertise. This is often referred to as the standard of care yardstick, and it is essential that the victim’s legal team be able identify specific instances of a deviation from this standard of care.

Trial

To prove the malpractice, the patient must show: (1) that the doctor owed a professional duty to her; (2) that the doctor breached this duty by a violation of the standard of care. (3) This breach led to injury and (4) this injury resulted in damages. This is a requirement for expert testimony from a medical professional to help the jury understand the applicable medical standards. It can be difficult for an injured victim and her legal team, to bridge the gap between their general knowledge and experience and the highly-specialized and expert expertise required to determine if there is a malpractice.

Malpractice claims can be filed with the state trial court which is able to handle the case. However, in limited circumstances they can also be filed with federal district courts. Both trial courts are governed by the same laws as other civil litigants. In the depositions of defendant doctors, the attorneys from both sides ask questions. After a direct examination the opposing attorney is able to cross-examine the physician who testified. This process continues until both sides have exhausted their questions.